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I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears and Other Intriguing Idioms from Around the World
"I'm not hanging noodles on your ears." In Moscow, this curious, engagingly colorful assertion is common parlance, but unless you're Russian your reaction is probably "Say what?" The same idea in English is equally odd: "I'm not pulling your leg." Both mean: Believe me.
As author Jag Bhalla demonstrates, these amusing, often hilarious phrases provide a unique perspective on how different cultures perceive and describe the world. Organized by theme--food, love, romance, and many more--they embody cultural traditions and attitudes, capture linguistic nuance, and shed fascinating light on "the whole ball of wax." For example, when English-speakers are hard at work, we're "nose to the grindstone," but industrious Chinese toil "with liver and brains spilled on the ground" and busy Indians have "no time to die."
If you're already fluent in 10 languages, you probably won't need this book, but you'll "get a kick out of it" anyhow; for the rest of us, it's a must. Either way, this surprising, often thought-provoking little tome is gift-friendly in appearance, a perfect impulse buy for word lovers, travelers, and anyone else who enjoys looking at life in a riotous, unusual way. And we're not hanging noodles from your ear.
As author Jag Bhalla demonstrates, these amusing, often hilarious phrases provide a unique perspective on how different cultures perceive and describe the world. Organized by theme--food, love, romance, and many more--they embody cultural traditions and attitudes, capture linguistic nuance, and shed fascinating light on "the whole ball of wax." For example, when English-speakers are hard at work, we're "nose to the grindstone," but industrious Chinese toil "with liver and brains spilled on the ground" and busy Indians have "no time to die."
If you're already fluent in 10 languages, you probably won't need this book, but you'll "get a kick out of it" anyhow; for the rest of us, it's a must. Either way, this surprising, often thought-provoking little tome is gift-friendly in appearance, a perfect impulse buy for word lovers, travelers, and anyone else who enjoys looking at life in a riotous, unusual way. And we're not hanging noodles from your ear.
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First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
July 23, 2011
I began this book expecting to find idiomatic expressions translated from other languages, some of which would be amusing, and others which might reveal how other cultures perceive their worlds. Very few of those listed herein met either of those criteria. The categories seemed rather arbitrary, and by the time I finished the book, it seemed some of the same ones were reappearing repeatedly.
So the surprising parts of this book - and why I kept reading - were the essays introducing each chapter. They focused on such things as the evolution of the English language and recent cognitive-linguistic research and theories. Some of these essays hardly seemed related to the purported purpose of this book, but they were refreshing tangents.
As for the idioms themselves, a book listing them would appear to not be a sustainable approach to studying them. Their number quickly surpassed my interest or ability to remember. They probably lose something in the translation and to be fully appreciated one would need to have a least a basic understanding of the source languages. Their study would therefore be more valuable as part of studying a specific language or culture.
The best find in this book was material taken from Ammon Shea's Reading the OED, of which author Jag Bhalla provided a sample list of useful English words which were no longer in current use. My favorites were "mythistory", "kakistocracy", and "criticaster". I verified them in the OED and have already used a couple of them. Now I will have to read Shea's book.
So the surprising parts of this book - and why I kept reading - were the essays introducing each chapter. They focused on such things as the evolution of the English language and recent cognitive-linguistic research and theories. Some of these essays hardly seemed related to the purported purpose of this book, but they were refreshing tangents.
As for the idioms themselves, a book listing them would appear to not be a sustainable approach to studying them. Their number quickly surpassed my interest or ability to remember. They probably lose something in the translation and to be fully appreciated one would need to have a least a basic understanding of the source languages. Their study would therefore be more valuable as part of studying a specific language or culture.
The best find in this book was material taken from Ammon Shea's Reading the OED, of which author Jag Bhalla provided a sample list of useful English words which were no longer in current use. My favorites were "mythistory", "kakistocracy", and "criticaster". I verified them in the OED and have already used a couple of them. Now I will have to read Shea's book.
December 2, 2009
A book for all linguists and general word freaks. It is my new favorite bathroom book, with Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates: Using Philosophy (and Jokes!) to Explore Life, Death, the Afterlife, and Everything in Between
coming in a close second. If you really loved me, friends, you would not allow me into bookstores.
coming in a close second. If you really loved me, friends, you would not allow me into bookstores.
December 30, 2011
Jam-packed with the little culture-through-language oddities I love learning about. A little more commentary interspersed throughout would have been nice, because the plain list format can get too tedious to read. (But preferably of the more almost-clinical, detached but interesting curator type, because sometimes the author's book and chapter introductions, though enthusiastic, can get a little... bombastic?)
I like the themed chapters (colors, countries, etc.) but my beef with this is that idioms in the original language are not provided, just the English translations. It makes it hard to verify these with a native speaker. Still in the process of having the boyfriend confirm and translate the Chinese idioms, so I might actually be able to use them, and am tempted to have friends who major in German and French to look into theirs. Because though interesting to read about, if you try to use these idioms in their English versions, sometimes it doesn't translate back as clearly, and your attempt at showing off that you know these idioms just ends up with a confused local. (Of course, sometimes that's what people will do, they will unconsciously transliterate their local saying into English, and sometimes you get a vague sense of what they're trying to say.) So, original examples would have helped, but maybe that's a tall order. It *is* quite an expansive book already. Some of the idioms are repeated though, under different chapters.
If you just want a peek at how the rest of the world thinks (the English "when pigs fly" is "when crawfish sing on the mountains" or "when frogs grow hair" elsewhere), this is nice to flip through. I'd recommend this as a bathroom book.
I like the themed chapters (colors, countries, etc.) but my beef with this is that idioms in the original language are not provided, just the English translations. It makes it hard to verify these with a native speaker. Still in the process of having the boyfriend confirm and translate the Chinese idioms, so I might actually be able to use them, and am tempted to have friends who major in German and French to look into theirs. Because though interesting to read about, if you try to use these idioms in their English versions, sometimes it doesn't translate back as clearly, and your attempt at showing off that you know these idioms just ends up with a confused local. (Of course, sometimes that's what people will do, they will unconsciously transliterate their local saying into English, and sometimes you get a vague sense of what they're trying to say.) So, original examples would have helped, but maybe that's a tall order. It *is* quite an expansive book already. Some of the idioms are repeated though, under different chapters.
If you just want a peek at how the rest of the world thinks (the English "when pigs fly" is "when crawfish sing on the mountains" or "when frogs grow hair" elsewhere), this is nice to flip through. I'd recommend this as a bathroom book.
June 24, 2010
This is a fun, informal collection of idioms from a few different languages, including Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, and German. I say informal because the author isn't any sort of linguistic expert, and he admits to not even being 100% sure as to the accuracy of all the idioms, or their rate of current usage and relevance. However, the book is very well organized, easy to read, and is a great source for a number of more "technical" books and articles about language and idioms. Bhalla admits that the book is more for entertainment than educational purposes (i.e., don't rely on it when really learning another language), and I think it lives up to this expectation just fine.
I must admit to being a little disappointed at first that the book isn't more technical, but I eventually got over it and came to appreciate it as a fun reference, perhaps one that I could take examples from the next time I teach English idioms. The only thing that consistently bothered me about the book was that sometimes I had a hard time following the organization of the start-of-chapter introductions. Different paragraphs don't always flow well from one to the next, and the author seems to ramble on sometimes before finally delving into the idioms themselves. Overall, it's certainly not the best thing I've ever read, but for a book comprised mostly of lists and intended for informal use, I can't complain too much.
I must admit to being a little disappointed at first that the book isn't more technical, but I eventually got over it and came to appreciate it as a fun reference, perhaps one that I could take examples from the next time I teach English idioms. The only thing that consistently bothered me about the book was that sometimes I had a hard time following the organization of the start-of-chapter introductions. Different paragraphs don't always flow well from one to the next, and the author seems to ramble on sometimes before finally delving into the idioms themselves. Overall, it's certainly not the best thing I've ever read, but for a book comprised mostly of lists and intended for informal use, I can't complain too much.
November 15, 2014
As a part of our reading club plan we read and discussed this book. The theme of the month was (languages) so we chose this book. It has some good and interested chapters which i like. I didn't enjoy many of the other topics.
January 8, 2016
Pretty interesting look at idioms around the world but full of strange rants and tangents often unrelated to the book's subject or even to the field of linguistics. At one point the author begins a chapter about numerical idioms with a long diatribe against capitalism and an exposé about how the work of economist Adam Smith has been taken out of context and misinterpreted. Fine. But I just wanted to read about some fun idioms and maybe discover some of their origins--by the way, there's virtually no etymology to be found here. Similarly, the author ends the book by pointing out the errors of The Enlightenment. What were those errors? Too rational. OK. Can we get back to some idioms. The Spanish and Italian ones seem particularly creative. The Japanese ones are inscrutable and possibly insane.
The book isn't all bad. The idioms are fun. There are some cool drawings. And the author's reference section at the end of the book would be a great place for anyone to start educating himself on popular linguistics. All the heavyweights are included.
The book isn't all bad. The idioms are fun. There are some cool drawings. And the author's reference section at the end of the book would be a great place for anyone to start educating himself on popular linguistics. All the heavyweights are included.
July 10, 2011
This light-hearted book is all about idioms, and I'm not hanging noodles on your ears, here. Idioms are colorful short collections of words that describe all sorts of things and are pretty universal, language-wise. An example: two people who cannot reconcile with one another 'cannot share the same sky' according to the Chinese.
Occasionally, idioms contain nuggets of wisdom, but always get you trying to figure out what they mean. The author, though given to pun abuse, introduces each chapter with some simplified scholarly work before laying out a fresh selection of idioms from around the world.
I'll leave you with one that impressed me. (No, not 'Never try to catch two frogs with one hand...) Try this instead: "The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, the second best is now."
Occasionally, idioms contain nuggets of wisdom, but always get you trying to figure out what they mean. The author, though given to pun abuse, introduces each chapter with some simplified scholarly work before laying out a fresh selection of idioms from around the world.
I'll leave you with one that impressed me. (No, not 'Never try to catch two frogs with one hand...) Try this instead: "The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, the second best is now."
July 10, 2016
Man, this was hard to get through. I picked this up as research, and there are a lot of really useful nuggets in here, but it's confusingly laid-out, poorly formatted for an e-book, and badly needs editing. Sections are headed by paragraphs of editorializing that have less-and-less to do with the contents as the book progresses. And as the book progresses, the sheer volume of repeated expressions becomes more-and-more obvious. It gets so sloppy towards the end that one can't help thinking Bhalla never expected anyone to actually finish.
It might make for decent toilet-reading, but be aware that much of the prose is skimmable. I'd rate it even lower except that there were some genuinely good bits buried in here, and it turned out to be quite useful for my research purposes. It was just a lot of work to mine those nuggets out.
It might make for decent toilet-reading, but be aware that much of the prose is skimmable. I'd rate it even lower except that there were some genuinely good bits buried in here, and it turned out to be quite useful for my research purposes. It was just a lot of work to mine those nuggets out.
November 11, 2012
A fun, quick read. The title means "I'm not pulling your leg". It's a book of funny idioms from other languages that sound very odd to English speaking people. Of course, many of our own idioms don't make any sense either.
Next time I put on makeup, I'll remember to say I'm sugaring my waffle (French). Other fun phrases are "Look like the Mona Lisa after a spanking" which is Czech for being poorly dressed and "Smoke belches from the seven openings on the head" which is Chinese for being very angry.
The author's commentary at the beginning of each chapter was the best part. He has a good sense of humor. His rant about the excesses of modern capitalism was surprising but interesting.
Next time I put on makeup, I'll remember to say I'm sugaring my waffle (French). Other fun phrases are "Look like the Mona Lisa after a spanking" which is Czech for being poorly dressed and "Smoke belches from the seven openings on the head" which is Chinese for being very angry.
The author's commentary at the beginning of each chapter was the best part. He has a good sense of humor. His rant about the excesses of modern capitalism was surprising but interesting.
July 14, 2015
I absolutely loved the book "The Meaning of Tingo", and thought that this would be more of the same. Wrong! Jag Bhalla's twist is that, while he provides idioms and lingo from across the globe, it is all in English and none of the actual languages are represented. Sadly, this is a vital part of what makes texts such as "Tingo" so enjoyable; and without the actual foreign vocabulary, this just feels entirely pointless.
September 21, 2009
To be read in small doses. A great book for world travelers and those interested in foreign languages. Fascinating look at how other cultures express themselves. The only negative is that the author sometimes gets mired in his own linguistic mud pit.
Read
July 15, 2010Funny, interesting, and punny, too! What does it say that a Spanish office worker is an "ink sucker", while a German one is an "ink pisser"? Along the way, Bhalla throws in a little psychology, a little political science, some linguistics, and a lot of humor.
August 24, 2014
It sounded like an interesting subject, but an an Italian speaker I found many translations to be not precise, if not completely wrong. I imagine this happens with other languages' idiomatic expressions too - making reading this book totally unworthy in my opinion.
August 20, 2025
This was rough.
This book could have been good. It would have been interesting if the author had provided alongside the literal translations of idioms and their English equivalents, explainations of cultural reasons for some of them.
Unfortunately this book doesn't do this. While the idioms themselves are relatively interesting the book suffers massively from each poorly organized section being prefaced with about 10 pages of whatever whining the author feels he needs to do about "political correctness", repeatedly citing Orwell and known scientific racism weirdo Stephen Pinker.
There is also a very strange section where he talks at length about "linguistic phrenology", a nonsense term he made up based on a bizarre adaptation of an already bizarre and widely debunked racist pseudoscience.
I wanted to like this book, and if it had been better organized and just been about idioms, maybe I would have.
As it is? The meandering intro segments and the people the author cites mean that it's just not worth the time it takes to read.
This book could have been good. It would have been interesting if the author had provided alongside the literal translations of idioms and their English equivalents, explainations of cultural reasons for some of them.
Unfortunately this book doesn't do this. While the idioms themselves are relatively interesting the book suffers massively from each poorly organized section being prefaced with about 10 pages of whatever whining the author feels he needs to do about "political correctness", repeatedly citing Orwell and known scientific racism weirdo Stephen Pinker.
There is also a very strange section where he talks at length about "linguistic phrenology", a nonsense term he made up based on a bizarre adaptation of an already bizarre and widely debunked racist pseudoscience.
I wanted to like this book, and if it had been better organized and just been about idioms, maybe I would have.
As it is? The meandering intro segments and the people the author cites mean that it's just not worth the time it takes to read.
June 8, 2013
This book and the topic - idioms in different languages - had such a great potential.
But it was just a potential.
What you get is only the English translation of the idioms (so how do you know the translators didn't suck or someone didn't pull their leg in translations?), and only from a handful of languages. If it had had the original expressions, it would have been much better. This would be my biggest complaint.
Many idioms were also repeated twice.
Most idioms (apart of Hindi and Chinese) were just from a handful of Western languages.
I can't remember any of the fanciest idioms any more (and I finished browsing the book yesterday), but I'm sure there were some.
My second biggest complaint would be that mostly any idiom was explained with another idiom in English. How is that helpful, unless the sole target audience for the book is those who are already familiar with idioms in English? Guess what? I suck in trying to understand idioms in most languages. I understand the words, and they make no sense. So we had idioms only explained in English? Fine; let me give you some more examples that were not present in the book, and you tell me what they are supposed to mean. (* = I have no clue what it means either)
Learn a thing and put it aside. (Sicilian - at least this one is easy to understand right?)
Like a plucked chicken. (Finnish, as are the rest unless otherwise specified)
Like a greased lightning. (Swedish)
Likes like a crazy person [likes] porridge.
One digs a hole to every second person. *
Like a flea in tar.
Repair one's bones.
To pull logs.
Pick raisins from a sweet bread.
Butts over shoulders.
Mug sized (or mug-going?)
Like Isaac's church.*
Like syphilis from Töölö. *
Pour oil on waves. *
Wood hay.
In their heads.
Release a frog from one's mouth.
On top of a fike-net.
I hope those are enough to make my point understood. If you understood all the example phrases here, congratulations. I didn't. (And they would probably have interesting enough to be included).
But it was just a potential.
What you get is only the English translation of the idioms (so how do you know the translators didn't suck or someone didn't pull their leg in translations?), and only from a handful of languages. If it had had the original expressions, it would have been much better. This would be my biggest complaint.
Many idioms were also repeated twice.
Most idioms (apart of Hindi and Chinese) were just from a handful of Western languages.
I can't remember any of the fanciest idioms any more (and I finished browsing the book yesterday), but I'm sure there were some.
My second biggest complaint would be that mostly any idiom was explained with another idiom in English. How is that helpful, unless the sole target audience for the book is those who are already familiar with idioms in English? Guess what? I suck in trying to understand idioms in most languages. I understand the words, and they make no sense. So we had idioms only explained in English? Fine; let me give you some more examples that were not present in the book, and you tell me what they are supposed to mean. (* = I have no clue what it means either)
Learn a thing and put it aside. (Sicilian - at least this one is easy to understand right?)
Like a plucked chicken. (Finnish, as are the rest unless otherwise specified)
Like a greased lightning. (Swedish)
Likes like a crazy person [likes] porridge.
One digs a hole to every second person. *
Like a flea in tar.
Repair one's bones.
To pull logs.
Pick raisins from a sweet bread.
Butts over shoulders.
Mug sized (or mug-going?)
Like Isaac's church.*
Like syphilis from Töölö. *
Pour oil on waves. *
Wood hay.
In their heads.
Release a frog from one's mouth.
On top of a fike-net.
I hope those are enough to make my point understood. If you understood all the example phrases here, congratulations. I didn't. (And they would probably have interesting enough to be included).
December 26, 2009
I think I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears is the first book I've read after hearing about it via a twitter litchat. With being unemployed and having very little budget for books right now I didn't expect to read the book soon. My library though had a copy sitting on the new books shelf.
I like language books and was intrigued by the title. "I'm not hanging noodles on your ears" is the Russian equivalent of "I'm not pulling your leg." The title reminds me of how my grandmother would threaten to "hit us over the head with wet noodles" if we were telling tall tales.
The book is divided into topics and after an introduction at the start of each chapter (topic) the list of idiom begins. Each chapter has at least one comic illustration of an included idiom. It's fun to see how different countries approach the same topic. I enjoyed the ones from Spanish speaking countries best having run into a number of idioms while learning the language.
Sometimes though an idiom will be repeated two or more times in a few pages making for an on-going sense of deja vu while reading. The author explains at the start of the book that there is some duplication of idioms but I would have preferred greater care in minimizing the duplication.
I like language books and was intrigued by the title. "I'm not hanging noodles on your ears" is the Russian equivalent of "I'm not pulling your leg." The title reminds me of how my grandmother would threaten to "hit us over the head with wet noodles" if we were telling tall tales.
The book is divided into topics and after an introduction at the start of each chapter (topic) the list of idiom begins. Each chapter has at least one comic illustration of an included idiom. It's fun to see how different countries approach the same topic. I enjoyed the ones from Spanish speaking countries best having run into a number of idioms while learning the language.
Sometimes though an idiom will be repeated two or more times in a few pages making for an on-going sense of deja vu while reading. The author explains at the start of the book that there is some duplication of idioms but I would have preferred greater care in minimizing the duplication.
March 31, 2015
"I'm no expert in these languages, linguistics, etymology, or culture, but let me tell you about all of those things anyway, along with a lot of unrelated and minimally-cited facts." That's what I took away from the introduction and the chapter headings of this book. Fortunately, Bhalla is considerate enough to remind the reader that they're free to skip over it, instead reading only the listed idioms. As Bhalla's musings on culture were frequently inexplicable and only tangentially relevant, I found myself taking that advice and skimming through to the actual lists of idioms. Even then, the idioms repeat rather frequently, and all are presented without any context, etymology, or even the untranslated original phrase. This gives the curious reader no way to research a particularly intriguing idiom, and instead makes one rely on Bhalla's word alone.
September 8, 2011
My rating for the book is somewhere between 3 and 4, much closer to 4. Ever since I read a review of this book in NPR, I've been wanting to read it, and it finally happened. It is a thoroughly entertaining book, though it is not that engaging all the way through. May be, as the author suggested, this book shouldn't be read at a stretch.
It is about idiom's all over the world and how we can understand other people and their culture through language. Not too high-brow, some of the idioms and the context they are used leaves you ROFL. Do-read recommendation for anyone interested in language and it's nuances.
It is about idiom's all over the world and how we can understand other people and their culture through language. Not too high-brow, some of the idioms and the context they are used leaves you ROFL. Do-read recommendation for anyone interested in language and it's nuances.
March 30, 2013
Definitely, as many other reviewers have said, a bathroom book. List-y, but thought-provoking, especially when I think in terms of the other world I'm trying to bring to life. Language isn't complete without idiom, and I'm trying to think of that when I write dialogue now, so definitely worth a look for me. I wouldn't recommend it so highly for serious linguists, but pretty good for a word nerd like me.
January 20, 2014
Was a little bit disappointed to see the end of the book so soon. Whilst at times it did become a tad annoying to see the same idioms used over in different chapters (I probably saw a few of them at least 3 or 4 times throughout the book) the book was still enjoyable and an easy read. My only gripe with the idioms was that they were only from the same few countries. I would've loved to have seen more from different locations in the world.
November 14, 2009
Another comedic bathroom book! Also, educational. Very amusing thus far. More of a pick up and read a couple of pages, then read straight through type of book.
Update: I won't pretend that I've read or retained most of what I read in this book, but I did have quite a few giggles while picking it up.
Update: I won't pretend that I've read or retained most of what I read in this book, but I did have quite a few giggles while picking it up.
July 7, 2015
An interesting collection along with some discussion of language theory. I was puzzled by the relatively lengthy discussion of Adam Smith and his economic theories which suddenly cropped up in the chapter on work. Although I found it interesting, it really seemed out of place. And I'm not hanging noodles in your ears when I say that.
October 25, 2009
This is a fun book--lots of interesting little tidbits from various cultures that are of interest to a word geek like myself. And a bit too much of the drier research and cultural commentary, frankly. I found it a bit repetitive so it took me quite a while to get through it, even just skimming.
March 15, 2011
Loved the idioms from around the world. Sometimes the author gets long winded and a bit preachy but it is easy to skip ahead when that happens. If you like words and you like languages, this is generally a fun book.
September 6, 2013
I found this book very interesting and sometimes funny. I enjoyed the beginning part of each chapter the best. The lists, on the other hand, would be better to go back to occasionally and read just a couple idioms at a time.
dnf
February 23, 2014Abandoned. It was so uninteresting, I forgot I was even reading it. Oops!
The topic has merit and is fun for a bit but the novelty wears off pretty quickly. I think this would be great for skimming or randomly paging though when you're bored. Not the greatest for cover-to-cover reading!
The topic has merit and is fun for a bit but the novelty wears off pretty quickly. I think this would be great for skimming or randomly paging though when you're bored. Not the greatest for cover-to-cover reading!
August 5, 2014
The book is awesome. If you want to lose your compact of vocabularies and enjoy such weird idioms and laugh to he fullest, you must read this :))) The author is not really hanging noodles on your ears hahaha.
February 11, 2015
A fun and interesting collection of international idioms. They are organized by topics with a brief informative introduction to each topic that is followed by a collection of idioms related to that topic.
Currently reading
July 10, 2009a gift from my dad who knows I love language: idioms, slang, proverbs, cliches whatever.
great addition to the collection
great addition to the collection
August 11, 2009
i love books with this stuff.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews